The Journal Judaica Bohemiae, the "Prague Spring," and the Renewal of the Historical Research in post-WWII Czechoslovakia: Commemorating the Historian Jan Heřman 1933-1986

IThe paper examines the origins of the multilingual journal of Jewish history Judaica Bohemiae on the eve of the "Prague Spring" at 1965 and the life work of its founder, the young Jewish-Czech historian Jan Heřman. In each of the new issues of Judaica Bohemiae, which under his guidance (1965-1971) developed into an internationally established scholarly periodical, he continuously published basic contributions to the history of the Jews in Prague and the Czech Lands at large during the late Middle Ages and the early modern age - the "golden age" of Bohemian Jewry. His works encompassed social and economic history, demographical studies and studies on the tomb inscriptions at the ancient Jewish cemeteries of the land. During the year 1968-69, at the peak and the suppression of the "Prague Spring", he was a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Though he was offered to join its staff, he returned to Prague and tried for a few years to continue his work in the Jewish Museum under the re-established severe totalitarian regime. Up to his untimely death in 1986 he had to work as a technical photographer at the municipal hospital of Prague. His last attempt to participate at the 4th World Congress for Jewish Studies in Jerusalem with a paper on the demographic development of Jewish Prague 1869-1939 was frustrated by the Czech authorities at that time, but it was nevertheless published in 1980 in Jerusalem. The paper wishes to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Jan Heřman`s death.